本帖最后由 tequilawine 于 2010-2-9 15:05 编辑
https://bbs.gter.net/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=1058004&pid=1773594927&page=1&extra=#pid1773594927appalling
[ap'pal·ling || -lɪŋ]
adj. 骇人的, 可怕的; 十分低劣的
sadistic
[sa·dis·tic || sə'dɪstɪk]
adj. 虐待狂的; 残酷成性的
shudder
[shud·der || 'ʃʌdə(r)]
n. 战栗, 发抖
v. 发抖, 战栗; 震动, 颤动
anguish
[an·guish || 'æŋgwɪʃ]
n. 苦恼; 痛苦
v. 使极苦闷; 使极痛苦; 感到痛苦
grotesque
[gro·tesque || grəʊ'tesk]
n. 怪异风格; 怪异的东西; 怪诞的图样
adj. 奇怪的, 可笑的
tormentor
[tor'men·tor || tɔr'mentə(r) /tɔː-]
n. 使苦痛之人, 长肉叉, 使苦恼之物; 防回声幕
strangle
[stran·gle || 'stræŋgl]
v. 勒死, 压制, 扼死; 被扼死; 被绞死; 被勒死; 窒息而死
ordeal
[or·deal || ɔr'dɪːl /ɔː'd-]
n. 严酷的考验, 折磨, 痛苦的经验
callous
[cal·lous || 'kæləs]
adj. 麻木的, 坚硬的, 无情的
v. 使硬结, 使麻木; 变硬, 结茧; 变得冷酷无情
brutality
[bru·tal·i·ty || bruː'tælətɪ]
n. 残忍, 野蛮; 暴虐行为, 蛮横行为
downbeat ['daunbi:t]
n. 下拍(乐队指挥向下的手势), 停滞
adj. 忧郁的,悲观的
burglary
[bur·gla·ry || 'bɜːglərɪ]
n. 夜盗; 抢劫; 破门盗窃
vigilance
['vig·i·lance || 'vɪdʒɪləns]
n. 警戒, 失眠症, 警觉心
staggering
['stag·ger·ing || 'stægərɪŋ]
adj. 摇晃欲倒的; 巨大的; 惊人的; 难以相信的
enrage
[en·rage || ɪn'reɪdʒ]
v. 激怒; 使愤怒
venerable
[ven·er·a·ble || 'venərəbl]
adj. 庄严的, 古老的, 值得尊敬的
eye-opener [ai'əupənə]
n. 使人惊奇的事物,大开眼界的事物,醒神酒
binge
[bɪndʒ]
n. 狂闹; 狂欢
tentative
[ten·ta·tive || 'tentətɪv]
adj. 试验性质的, 暂时的
penchant
[pen·chant || 'pɒ0303;ːŋʃɒ0303;ːŋ]
n. 强烈倾向; 嗜好; 趣味
Sodom ['sɔdəm]
n. 罪恶之地
whip
[hwɪp /w-]
n. 鞭子, 车夫
v. 鞭打, 搅拌, 挥动; 拍击, 抽打, 急走
partisan
[par·ti·san || 'pɑrtɪzn /'pɑːt-]
n. 强硬支持者; 游击队员; 党人#戟
adj. 党派性强的; 由一个党派组成的; 偏袒的; 游击队的
banish
[ban·ish || 'bænɪʃ]
v. 流放, 放逐; 开除, 赶走; 消除, 排除
impoverish
[im·pov·er·ish || ɪm'pɑvərɪʃ /-'pɒv-]
v. 使贫穷, 使枯竭
1 Connecting it to four other infamous examples of callous brutality, he declared that it raised “deep questions about what is going wrong in our society”. Britain is experiencing a social recession to match the economic one, he reckons.
2 Was Mary Bell’s Britain better than today’s version?同物相比 An increasing number of people seem to think so.
3 There has been a “surge of nostalgia” for the good old days, says Ben Page, head of Ipsos-Mori, a polling firm.
4 Chief among people’s worries is their security.
5 Robbery has not gone down as much as burglary, perhaps because personal security has not improved in line with domestic security.
6 Nor does it weight serious crimes more heavily than mild ones, which means that a drop in bicycle theft could cancel out an increase in assaults.
7 Indeed, the day before Mr Cameron made his “broken society” pitch it was announced that the total number of homicides recorded by the police was at its lowest in 19 years.反义词COME TO ITS PEAK
8 But some bad habits are being kicked.
9 But things do seem to be looking up.
10 Among teenagers an interesting trend is emerging: the number of young people who abstain completely from alcohol is rising, but those who do drink are guzzling more.
11 It seems that while the majority are sobering up, a dedicated minority are partying on.
12 Less crime, less killing, fewer teenage mums, far fewer fags, perhaps a bit less drink and drugs: why is it that the idea of “broken Britain” rings true with so many, when it seems far from reality? Partly, it is because people’s ideas about the state of society are simply inaccurate: the average voter reckons that four out of ten teenagers have children, for instance, whereas in fact perhaps three in a hundred do. Official statistics to the contrary are viewed with suspicion after successive governments have relentlessly massaged them.
13
Many of those who were already at the bottom of the pile are finding it impossible to get out from under 解除困境and join in. And this is serious.
14 At the root of it all is an education system that has long failed to educate the great mass of children usefully. It is showing its limitations more than ever now that manufacturing jobs for the unskilled are vanishing.
15 The most sobering aspect is the persistent gap in achievement between the very best and the very worst.
16
At the same time, the definition of crime has expanded. Labour has repeatedly vowed to squash not only crime but also “anti-social behaviour”, attempting to tackle it with measures such as the “ASBO”, a court order aimed at muzzling noisy neighbours and the like.
17 It is in these small pockets that the social improvements of recent decades may have been felt least. Drinking is down overall, but a minority is drinking harder; most types of crime are down, but certain types of violence persist; total drug use has fallen, but some of the most harmful drugs are getting more popular. The evidence supporting the existence of a “broken society” is thin indeed: all the more reason to focus on those who languish outside mainstream society altogether.
Comment:
To see if the society is broken up is not from what we sense or what we think, i mean, sometimes we just are misled by our own intuition. Ensued from series of youth convicts, our society are appalled, and more worse, through the horrified media, exaggeration is important by no means. Truly it is, lost in modern fast-speeding community, people are no more the same as before, from all aspects we can imagine that our tenets changed so much that even contemporary populace still can not accept all, not to mention others.
Let's get back to our topic now. What the real problem is matters in our society. As the author said, Britain has plenty of things to worry about, but the biggest one is not sex, drugs and rock' en roll. There are a bunch of people statistically including
a number of underskilled young whites and Caribbeans, who are being left behind in a general march toward the light.
Many of those who were already at the bottom of the pile are finding it impossible to get out from under and join in. And this is serious. We can not brush aside it and pretend everything just goes well.
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